Return to Tomorrow (episode)
Three survivors from a race that died half a million years ago "borrow" the bodies of Enterprise crew members so they can build android bodies for themselves. Summary Teaser The ''Enterprise'' is traveling through space in a region of space hundreds of light years further than any Earth starship has explored. A great, ineffable intelligence has activated her distress signal relays, giving her strong readings yet remaining invisible to her sensors. The crew arrive at a destroyed Class M planet - much older than Earth, Spock determines, and long dead, its atmosphere ripped away by some cataclysmic event about a half million years ago. A male voice suddenly speaks, referring to the ship's crew as his "children" and asking them to come into orbit. He admits the unpromising state of his planet, and says strangely that he too is dead – and death will be the fate of mankind too, should they choose not to visit. Act One In his captain's log (Stardate 4768.3 - see below), Captain Kirk states his intention to risk contact; Uhura tells him the entry will not reach Starfleet for three weeks. Spock's science station probes touch the mysterious planetary speaker, named Sargon, who feeds him the transporter coordinates to a chamber more than a hundred miles beneath the surface. In that deep vastness Spock detects a serviceable atmosphere and presumes that a landing party should fare well enough. Kirk plans to leave him in command, saying that with this many unknowns "we can't risk both of us being off of the ship." But Sargon makes his preferences plain by cutting the ship's power until Spock is added to the guest list. In the transporter room, Dr. McCoy, crewmen Lemli and Leslie, and Lt. Commander Mulhall have reported for beam-down. Mulhall, an astrobiologist seconded to the operations division, is unknown to Kirk; it turns out that her orders to join the landing party came from Sargon himself. McCoy is apoplectic when he hears Spock's revised approximation of the thickness of solid rock through which the party is to be transported: 112.37 miles. When the party leaves the ship, the two crewmen's transporter pads fail to energize – another of Sargon's surprises. Underground, in a sort of holding area, Spock finds that the walls date from the time of the cataclysm, and are made from the strongest, hardest material he has ever come across. Mulhall finds the atmosphere only slightly different from that aboard ship. A chamber opens and the unguarded party enter to discover Sargon – energy without substance, matter without form – housed in a glowing spheroid shell. He gives his guests a little history lesson: 6,000 centuries ago, the humanoids of this planet were spacefarers. They colonized throughout the galaxy. The legends of a Human creation myth were perhaps two of Sargon's race. But 1,000 centuries after the colonial heyday came the ultimate conflict. Possessed of minds "infinitely greater" than the landing party's, having goals beyond their comprehension, Sargon's race fought a superwar, unleashing powers to which even nuclear war pales in comparison. And so the masters of the galaxy all but exterminated themselves, and their homeworld for half a million years has lain dead. Calling Kirk his "son", Sargon exchanges places with him, taking the captain's body from him and storing his mute mind within the sphere. Sargon thrills to have a corporeal form again. Act Two Leading the party to an inner chamber, Sargon shows them ten other spheres ranged in two rows. His wife Thalassa's is the only one still aglow on the lower tier. On the upper, one glows as well – Henoch, of the ultimate conflict's "other side." These essences, too, will require hosts, namely Mulhall and Spock. McCoy complains that Sargon is "burning up" Kirk’s body – his heart is beating 262 times per minute. Sargon says he and his fellows wish to hold the Human bodies only long enough to build "humanoid robots" with methods and skills "far beyond your abilities." Sargon staggers back to the main chamber and, again calling Kirk "son," vacates his body. Kirk's metabolism promptly returns to normal. He says his mind's stay in the receptacle was a "floating in time and space." But the intimate proximity to Sargon during the exchange has affected him deeply: "For an instant we were one... I know him now – what he is, and what he wants – and I don't fear him." In a briefing room back aboard ship, the landing party is joined by Scott, whose assistance will be necessary in the construction of "android robots." Kirk will not order their participation. With such mechanical bodies, Spock says, Sargon and company will be able to leave this planet and share their technology. The resulting advances for "mankind" would be a great leap of ten millennia. Scott is won over by the prospect of starship engines "the size of walnuts"; Mulhall says that in the interest of science she must cooperate. McCoy finds it suspicious coincidence that the bodies of both the captain and first officer are required, and worries that next to such "giants" the Human crew must seem to be "insects." Kirk compares the undertaking at hand with the first Human missions to the Moon, to Mars, to Alpha Centauri, and reminds McCoy that six generations back surgery was done with scalpels and catgut. "''Risk," he concludes, "is our business." In the medical lab, McCoy and Nurse Chapel oversee the transference. Thalassa, seeing through Mulhall's eyes, at first looks for her husband in the erect Spock, but Sargon draws her attention "here" – in Kirk's body. She approves of his choice of host, finding it similar to the body he lost in the cataclysm. Henoch is pleased with his own host: the Human-Vulcan hybrid has "strength, hearing and eyesight far above the Human norm." Spock's body deals better with the transference too, being "accustomed to higher metabolism"; Henoch stays in it when the others collapse and for the second time Sargon relinquishes Kirk's body. In the pharmacology laboratory, Henoch and Chapel make up a metabolic suppressant formula which, administered at 10 cc/hr, should allow the three Cataclysm survivors to function in their host bodies. Chapel notices that Sargon's formula has been doctored and fears for her captain. Henoch confirms that he intends that Kirk die – so as to finish Sargon. He then establishes mind control over Chapel, touching his middle finger to her forehead. Act Three McCoy makes an entry in his medical log (4769.1 - see below): Sargon is now in his third possession of Kirk's body, Thalassa is back in Mulhall's, and Henoch continues to possess Spock's. In a workshop, Sargon and Thalassa are beginning the assembly of their new android bodies. They reminisce, but the lost scenes of their beloved homeworld turn to a cruel reminder of the insensate future that awaits them. Henoch enters and enjoys the plight of his sorely tempted but morally rigorous opponents. He for one has no intention of relinquishing his host body. Sargon feels the damage he is wreaking on Kirk's inadequately suppressed metabolism, but does not want to worry his wife and soldiers on. In the medical lab, Chapel conveys Henoch's bogus metabolic readings to McCoy. Mistaking her evident stress for fatigue, he offers to administer the last few doses of suppressant to the visitors. Alarmed, Chapel insists she will be up to the task. In the shop, Scott cannot see how the technology of the ancient colonizers is going to work in the android bodies, which must "need micro-gears and some sort of pulley that does what a muscle does." A happy Henoch/Spock appears in the doorway and corrects him: comprehend its workings though Scott may not, the android form will surpass his Human strength and agility by 100%. To Thalassa, though, Henoch's upbeat manner rings hollow: the android form will house her for a thousand years – is that not what a prison does? She feels a tremor of revolt against the impending surrender of her humanoid existence. Might a Human body not after all be her due, given all the good she proposes to bring to "mankind"? In the Deck 6 briefing room, Sargon realizes he can no longer ignore the danger to Kirk's body and calls McCoy. Thalassa arrives first and runs the idea of sacrificing Mulhall past her husband. Seeing that the wrongness of the proposition has escaped her, Sargon points out the practical difficulties – it will take months, if not years, for the host bodies to grow accustomed to the presence of their essences. She knows that he, too, longs to resume their physical intimacy – the "intertwining" of senses – and kisses him, asking "can robot lips do this?" Fighting temptation as well as Henoch's vapid medicine, he collapses. McCoy and Chapel arrive to find Sargon/Kirk "dead." Act Four McCoy makes an entry in the medical log (4770.3 – see below). He is sure that Sargon has died, forced to flee the Captain’s collapsed body, and too far from the receptacle to bring about the exchange of essences. Despite its inhospitality, the vacant body has been brought around in sickbay, its "vital organs now working," as the nurse says. In the shop, Henoch works on a male-shaped android body. Thalassa wonders why he bothers, since he doesn't plan to return his present body to Spock. He stokes her revulsion, saying the android form is for her – she can occupy it before it has its female features installed. In the medical lab, Thalassa proposes a back room deal with McCoy: she is able to move Kirk's mind back into the functioning body, but she requires that the doctor connive at her keeping that of Mulhall, "whom you hardly know – almost a stranger to you!" Even for such a return, McCoy cannot leave Mulhall to die. Thalassa threatens him, "we can take what we wish... I could destroy you with a single thought!" But her godlike posturing disgusts her, and she realizes that physical existence is seductive and corrupting for her kind. Relieved to witness her integrity, Sargon now speaks: he has been sheltering unsuspected in the very fabric of the vessel. Chapel arrives summoned. Thalassa asks McCoy to leave them – "Sargon has a plan." In his study, McCoy is alarmed by a series of explosions from the lab. Unable to enter, he is calling for aid when Chapel exits – with something plainly on her mind. Back in the lab, Kirk and Mulhall have regained their bodies. The three receptacles are burnt out. And Spock's mind? Kirk says the loss was "necessary." The urgent task is to terminate Spock’s physical form and so put an end to Henoch. Kirk orders McCoy to prepare a hypo fatal to Vulcans. On the bridge, Henoch terrorizes Uhura and warns Sulu. Chapel stands beside Henoch. McCoy arrives with Kirk and Mulhall, whom Henoch stops short by forcing pain upon them. Chapel takes McCoy's hypo. Its contents are known to Henoch from reading McCoy's mind. He orders Chapel to inject McCoy – but suddenly, she injects him/Spock instead. At first he belittles their attempt, but when he senses the undead and powerful Sargon his instinct is to beg. Spock’s body collapses, Henoch flees but with no host, android nor receptacle at hand he is destroyed. Chapel swoons, Spock stands. She explains that she had been carrying (and sharing) Spock's essence, which behind Henoch's back Sargon had "placed in me." And the hypo, potent enough to "kill ten Vulcans"? A necessary illusion, says Sargon. He borrows Kirk's body for a fourth and last time, in order to hold his wife as a living woman before the couple consign themselves to oblivion "forever." Their final kiss, says Chapel with a teary, fond look at Spock, was "beautiful." Log entries *"Captain’s log, stardate 4768.3. The Enterprise is in orbit above a planet whose surface, our sensors tell us, is devoid of all life, a world destroyed and dead for at least a half million years. Yet from it comes a voice, the energy of pure thought, telling us something has survived here for those thousands of centuries. Since exploration and contact with alien intelligences is our primary mission, I've decided to risk the potential dangers and resume contact. Log entry out." *"Enterprise medical log, stardate 4769.1. Three alien minds now inhabit the bodies of Captain Kirk, Science Officer Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall. As planned, the construction of android robots is underway. All is proceeding as expected ... and as promised. I can find no reason for concern, but yet I am filled with foreboding." *"Medical log, Stardate 4770.3. Do I list one death or two? When Kirk's body died, Sargon was too far distant from his receptacle to transfer back. Sargon is dead. But is Captain Kirk dead? His body is, but his consciousness is still in the receptacle into which it was transferred earlier." Memorable Quotes "They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars, and then to the nearest star? That's like saying that you wished you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great great great great grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this. But I'm not because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk... Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her." : - Kirk "Let's get back to this solid rock business." : - McCoy "Hello. (laughs) Oh you are a lovely female. A pleasant sight to wake up to after half a million years." "Oh. Thank you." "You're welcome (laughs)" : - Spock/Henoch and Chapel after the transference "Oblivion together does not frighten me, beloved." : - Thalassa "Lungs filling with air again. To see again. Heart pumping, arteries surging with blood again. To feel it all. After a half a million years... ''to be again." : - '''Kirk/Sargon' the "demonstration" "Not even a Vulcan can know the unknown, captain." : - Spock "They're goin' to - what?! Are they alright in the head, Doctor?" "No comment." : - Scotty and Doctor McCoy "A simple transference - their minds and ours" "Quite simple. Happens everyday." : - Kirk and McCoy Background Information * In the sickbay scene in Act Two, the light bulbs inside Thalassa/Mulhall's receptacle – one blue, one green – are fairly obvious. * One of the fiberglass globes later was re-used as part of the Romulan cloaking device in and for M-4 in . * The stand for one of the globes were later turned upside-down and used as a piece of technology on Atoz's desk in . * The preview of this episode features a different take of the scene just before Thalassa zaps McCoy. In the preview, Muldaur says "I could destroy you with '''one' thought!" In the completed episode, she says, "''I could destroy you with '''a single' thought!" * A still of Henoch (in Spock's body) leaning in the door of the workshop and smiling at Thalassa and Scott is used as the third backdrop to the end credits of . That episode was produced before "Return to Tomorrow" but did not go to air until 19 January 1968. * In the "Immunity Syndrome" end credits, the fifth still is a non-canonical image of an extra, apparently series regular Bill Blackburn, wearing the android make-up while dressed in a brown velor zippered top. * The extra is seen in another non-canonical image, peeling the latex android make-up off of his head, in the third of the stills in the credits for . That episode had been produced only the week before "Return to Tomorrow", and aired two weeks after it, on February 23. * In a clip from the second season blooper reel, the extra playing the android (Bill Blackburn) grinningly peels off his latex coating, assisted by someone (perhaps make-up artist Fred Phillips) who says, "''Well, son, you wanted show business – G– dammit, you got it!" Another clip shows William Shatner grasping one of the globes and proclaiming, "Have no fear: Sargon is here." * Yet another blooper shows Shatner standing by the bed in sickbay; Kelley approaches him and says "Jim?" Jumping a line, Shatner says "I'm fine, Bones." Kelley responds "Are you all right?" They both crack up laughing; in the next take they can't even begin to speak before they dissolve into helpless giggles. * There are interesting, if probably coincidental parallels with the first season episode : the planet Exo III also became uninhabitable 500,000 years ago, and its survivors fled underground. And both episodes deal with the problems of androids (how much faster Sargon and Thalassa might have embodied themselves if only they'd had that nice Exo III duplicating device). The Old Ones of that lost world however do not seem to have any connection with Sargon's race of colonizers. Fan writer Ruth Berman suggested that Sargon and friends could have done better with the clearly superior androids from . * It is unclear how two of Sargon's fellow travelers might have inspired the Adam and Eve myth on one part of Earth, as all colonizing activity stopped before the Cataclysm. The heyday of their effort, 600,000 years ago, is the earliest estimate for the appearance of Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor we seem to share with the speechless Neanderthals. * "Dr. Ann Mulhall, Astro-Biology" should be wearing a blue science uniform not a red engineering one. Kirk should also know who she is as she is a lieutenant commander which makes her a senior officer. * This episode is the latest in any season to feature a completely new score, this one by George Duning. Perhaps because of its late appearance in the season, much of it is never heard again in any subsequent episode. The menacing Henoch cues are re-used extensively in and . By the halfway point in each season, scores were generally completed using stock music from previous episodes, with occasional snippets of new music added here and there. * This was George Takei's return to the series after an absence of some months filming The Green Berets. * Dr. Ann Mulhall is played by Diana Muldaur, who later played the roles of Miranda Jones in and Katherine Pulaski in Star Trek: The Next Generation. * James Doohan was the voice of Sargon. * As in , Star Trek again references the Apollo moon landing, which was still more than a year and a half away when this episode was filmed. In Act Two, Kirk chides McCoy as a piker, asking rhetorically "Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the Moon...?" Of course, the (Apollo 11) moon landing was not technically the first of the Apollo missions, as the production team well knew : the Apollo 1 disaster had occurred in January 1967, well before the "Return to Tomorrow" script was even submitted – and a full year before the episode was broadcast. In early November, just prior to this production, the uncrewed Apollo 6 flight tested the Saturn V launcher. Not until TOS was into its third season did humans again crew an Apollo mission (Apollo 7). Apollo 8 (and 10), which made the transit to lunar orbit, could be said to have "reached the moon", but Kirk's statement is clearly a reference to Apollo 11 – the first human landing upon an alien surface. Production timeline * Story outline by John Dugan, * Second draft teleplay, * Second revised final script, , filmed late November Remastered Information Image:Enterprise on patrol remastered.jpg|The Enterprise patrols unexplored space Image:Arret remastered.jpg|The Enterprise orbits the planet The remastered version of "Return to Tomorrow" aired in many North American markets during the weekend of . The episode included new effects shots of the Enterprise and a new, more realistic version of Sargon's homeworld. The episode also included shots of the planet matted into interior viewscreen shots. http://trekmovie.com/2007/07/08/return-to-tomorrow-screenshots-and-video/ Video and DVD releases * Original US Betamax release: . * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 27, catalogue number VHR 2379, . * US VHS release: . * UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.8, . * Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 26, . * As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection. Links and References Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk/Sargon * Leonard Nimoy as Spock/Henoch * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Majel Barrett as Chapel Guest Stars * Diana Muldaur as Dr. Ann Mulhall/Thalassa * James Doohan as Sargon (voice) * Cindy Lou as a Nurse Uncredited Co-Stars * Eddie Paskey as Leslie * William Blackburn as Hadley and android body * Frank da Vinci as Brent * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli References Adam and Eve; air; Alpha Centauri; Apollo 11; Arret; artery; astrobiology; atmosphere; blood; body temperature; catgut; cc; class M; conn; diagram; distress signal relay; Earth; energy; engineer; euphoria;evolution; Fahrenheit; heart; heart rate; humanoid robot; hypo; jelly; landing party; lungs; Mars; matter; medicine man; metabolic rate; metabolic reduction injection; micro-gear; mile; muscle; negatron hydrocoil; nitrogen; nuclear age (nuclear era); oxygen; pharmacology; physician; pulley;receptacle; Sargon; scalpel; standard orbit; subspace radio; technician; transporter; vital organ; Vulcan; Vulcan prehistory; walnut External link * |next= |lastair= |nextair= |lastair_remastered= |nextair_remastered= }} Category:TOS episodes de:Geist sucht Körper es:Return to Tomorrow fr:Return to Tomorrow nl:Return to Tomorrow